Aspects of American race relations that may be new to you (person)

Oh dear library patron, I am sorry about the problems with our computers, I really am. I wish I could figure out how patrons are changing the default homepage on the web browsers because when I try to change it back, it seems to require administrator access, which I do not have. I'm sorry that the technology people can't come down here right this second and fix it. I really am. This frustrates me as well.

This does not, however, mean that I am racist. This is a problem for all of the other computers in the library - it is not directed at you personally, nor is it directed at the other users of the African American Department, no matter what you say about it being directed at you and the other black people. Further, "the other white boy" and I are not the ones who conspired to change the homepages on the computers or caused the pop-ups to occur - if we were doing that, don't you think we'd change them to something advantageous to us, like, say, my eBay aucions? Would we really choose some band's page on Myspace? Further, I am not attempting to block access to the pages that you are interested in, nor am I trying to monitor you.

As to your comment that you "didn't know you were south of the Mason-Dixon Line", with all respect, I offer you a map to show that yes, in fact, we are south of the Line.

You really don't need to go on about how loudly I spoke when I was trying to get the gentleman with the blaring headphones to turn them down. How was I supposed to get him to turn down the volume with them as loud as they were, when I could hear them at the other end of the room? I tried speaking to him in a quiet, polite tone, then gradually raised my voice until he could hear me. Truly, what would you have me do?

I am thankful that my boss's boss was able to come down here and speak with you, because he does such an excellent job of smoothing out these problems. You told him that all you wanted to do was find the phone number of the city schools, and that you were blocked from doing so. I wasn't aware that this was the problem. You had presented the problem to me as being that the computer was frozen, so I restarted it. I understand your frustration at having filtering software on the computers, but we are required by federal law to do so in order to receive certain funding. I don't like this either - it probably frustrates me even more than it frustrates you - but it's not my fault. If you'd told me that the filtering was the problem, I could have disabled it for you.

Finally, just because I am not the most skilled at fixing the computers, and because I lack administrator access, does not mean that I am racist, nor does it mean that I have any feelings of animosity toward you.

Oh, and if you'd asked me for the phone number that you were trying to locate, the phone number that you told my boss's boss was "the only reason I needed to get on the computer", I would have done my best to find it for you. I'd have found it for you relatively quickly. And I'll be happy to help you tomorrow if you should happen to visit us again.